Back to the drawing board for new flats

Developers will need to submit a retrospective plan for the new flats to be approved

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Planners have asked a developer to submit new plans following the building of a block of flats in Caversham.

The flats – on the site of the former Golden Key pub in Queens Road – have been developed by Ardgowan Homes Limited but were not built in accordance with planning consent.

Ardgowan, based in Winkfield, applied though its agent Plan Associates in February for 35 “minor amendments” to the original scheme to cover the irregularities.

The two and three-storey block with 11 two-bedroom flats is already built and the application was made to amend the existing planning permission.

But Reading Borough Council (RBC) planners turned down the 35 minor amendments because they would “materially change the appearance of the development” taking it outside the scope of the original planning permission.

They include things like the depth of the first floor windows, roof pitches to bay windows at the front, ground floor window heights and roof shapes.

The development as it stands is considered, according to planning officers, to be “unauthorised and would require the benefit of planning permission to regularise the situation”.

The applicant has now been invited to submit another retrospective plan to try to gain approval for the building that has actually been built.

The original planning application for the flats was turned down by Reading borough councillors, but allowed on appeal in January 2006.

RBC spokesman Chris Branagan said: “The development was not built in accordance with the approved plans, and we now are awaiting a planning application from the developer that is in line with the buildings that have actually been constructed.

“This new application would have to go through the normal planning process. Should this new application not be forthcoming, the matter will be passed on to our planning enforcement department.”